more scientific fun

In the same issue that featured the study of Playboy centerfolds I just mentioned, the British Medical Journal also contains a study that debunks the legend of the "Mummy's Curse"--the theory that those involved with the 1922 discovery of Egyptian pharoah Tutankhamen's tomb died suddenly soon after. Although expedition patron Lord Carnarvon died just weeks after the opening of the chamber--launching the myth--the study found that most others suffered no undue effects, and indeed archaeologist Howard Carter, who led the team that discovered King Tut's tomb, and who scoffed at the notion of a curse, lived into his 60s before dying of natural causes.

In other goodies, the same issue contained a study suggesting that gobbling ice cream (as opposed to eating it slowly) makes one more prone to ice cream headache (known to Pete & Pete fans as the dreaded "brain freeze") even in cold weather, a study suggesting that Asian-Americans do not die in disproportiante numbers on the 4th of the month due to a beleif that the number 4 is unlucky, and a study suggesting that the lay public is better at guessing a baby's gender from looking at its face than pediatricians are, although the mean number of wrong guesses as nearly 45%.